Erwin Schrodinger

August 12, 1887, Mr.. - January 4, 1961
Austrian physicist Erwin SchrцІdinger was born in Vienna. His father, Rudolf SchrцІdinger, was the owner of a factory to produce cloth, and was interested in painting and have great interest in botany. The only child in the family, Erwin received his primary education at home. His first teacher was his father, which subsequently W. spoke as a 'friend, teacher and do not know fatigue interlocutor'. In 1898, Mr.. SH. enrolled in the Academic Gymnasium, where he was the first pupil in Greek, Latin, classical literature, mathematics and physics. In my school years at W. came love of theater.
In 1906, Mr.. he entered the University of Vienna and the following year began to attend lectures on physics Frederick Gazenerlya. whose brilliant ideas have made a deep impression on Erwin. Protection in 1910. doctoral dissertation, W. became the assistant experimental physicist Franz Exner in the 2 nd Physics Institute at the University of Vienna. In this position he remained until the outbreak of World War. In 1913, Mr.. SH. and KV. F. Kohlrausch Haytingera win the Imperial Academy of Sciences for the experimental study of radium.
During the war, W. served as an artillery officer in the remote town of the garrison, located in the mountains, away from the front. Efficient use of spare time, he studied the general theory of relativity, Albert Einstein. After the war he returned for the 2 nd Physics Institute in Vienna, . where he continued his research on the general theory of relativity, . statistical mechanics (dealing with the study of systems, . consisting of a very large number of interacting objects, . eg gas molecules) and the diffraction of X-ray,
. At the same W. conducts extensive experimental and theoretical research on color theory and color perception.
In 1920, Mr.. SH. went to Germany, where he became assistant to Max Wien at Jena University, but four months later became an adjunct professor at the Technical University of Stuttgart. After one semester he left Stuttgart for a short time has served as professor in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). Then W. moved to Switzerland and became a full professor there, as well as the successor to Einstein and Max von Laue at the Department of Physics, University of Zurich. In Zurich, where W. remains from 1921 to 1927, he focuses mainly on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics and their application to explain the nature of gases and solids. Curious about a wide range of physical problems, . he watches and the successes of quantum theory, . but not focusing on this area until 1925, . when he appeared favorable opinion of Einstein on the wave theory of matter, Louis de Broglie.,
. Quantum theory was born in 1900, . when Max Planck proposed a theoretical conclusion about the relationship between body temperature and radiation emitted by this body, . conclusion, . who has long eluded other scientists, . Like its predecessors, . Planck suggested, . that emit radiation of the atomic oscillator, . but believed, . that the energy of the oscillators (and, . hence, . radiation emitted by them) exists in the form of small discrete portions, . which Einstein called quanta,
. The energy of each photon is proportional to the frequency of radiation. Although derived Planck formula aroused the admiration he has taken admission remained unclear, because contrary to classical physics. In 1905, Mr.. Einstein used the quantum theory to explain some aspects of the photoelectric effect - the electron emission surface of the metal, which decreases the ultraviolet radiation. Incidentally, Einstein pointed out an apparent paradox: the light, which for two centuries it was known that he distributed as continuous waves, under certain circumstances, can behave as a stream of particles.
. Approximately eight years later Niels Bohr extended the quantum theory of atoms and explained the frequency of waves emitted by atoms excited in a flame or an electric charge
. Ernest Rutherford showed, . that the mass of the atom is almost entirely concentrated in the central nucleus, . carrying a positive electric charge and surrounded by relatively large distances electrons, . carrying a negative charge, . resulting atom as a whole is electrically neutral.,
. Bohr suggested, . that electrons can be found only in certain discrete orbits, . corresponding to different energy levels, . and that 'jump' of an electron from one orbit to another, . lower energy, . accompanied by the emission of a photon, . whose energy is equal to the energy difference between the two orbits,
. Frequency by Planck's theory, is proportional to the photon energy. Thus, the model of the atom Bohr established a link between the various lines of the spectra, characteristic of the substance emitting the radiation and atomic structure. Despite the initial success, the model of the atom Bohr soon require modifications in order to get rid of the discrepancy between theory and experiment. Moreover, quantum theory at that stage yet did not give systematic procedure for solving many quantum problems.
. New essential feature of quantum theory manifested itself in 1924, . when the de Broglie put forward a radical hypothesis that the wave nature of matter: if the electromagnetic waves, . such light, . sometimes behave as particles (which showed Einstein), . the particles, . such as electron, under certain circumstances, . can behave like waves,
. In the formulation of de Broglie frequency, . corresponding particle, . linked to its energy, . as in the case of a photon (particle of light), . But de Broglie proposed a mathematical expression was equivalent to the relation between wavelength, . mass of the particle and its velocity (momentum),
. The existence of electron waves has been experimentally proved in 1927. Clinton J. Davisson and Lester G. Germer in the United States and J. P. Thomson in England.
In turn, this discovery led to the creation in 1933. Ernest Rusco electron microscope.
Impressed by Einstein's comments on the ideas of de Broglie W. attempted to use the wave description of electrons to build a consistent quantum theory, not related to inadequate model of the atom Bohr. In a sense he intended to reconcile quantum theory with classical physics, which has accumulated many examples of mathematical description of waves. The first attempt made W. in 1925, ended in failure. The velocities of electrons in the theory III. were close to the speed of light, which required the inclusion of special relativity, Einstein predicted it and recording a significant increase in the electron mass at very high speeds.
One of the reasons befallen W. failure was that he did not take into account the availability of specific properties of the electron, now known under the name of the spin (rotation of the electron around its own axis like a gyroscope), which was then little known. The next attempt to Z. taken in 1926. The velocities of electrons at this time they have been chosen so small that the need to involve the theory of relativity fell away by itself. The second attempt was crowned with the withdrawal of the SchrцІdinger wave equation, which gives a mathematical description of matter in terms of the wave function. SH. called his theory of wave mechanics. Decisions of the wave equation is in agreement with experimental observations and had a profound influence on the subsequent development of quantum theory.
. Shortly before Werner Heisenberg, Max Born and Pascual Jordan published another version of quantum theory, known as matrix mechanics, which describe quantum phenomena by using tables of observed values
. These tables are in some way ordered mathematical set, called matrix over which according to certain rules can make different mathematical operations. Matrix mechanics is also possible to reach agreement with the observed experimental data, but in contrast to the wave mechanics does not contain any specific reference to the spatial coordinates and time. Heisenberg particularly insisted on the rejection of any simple visual representations or models in favor of only those properties that could be determined from the experiment.
W. showed that the wave mechanics and matrix mechanics are mathematically equivalent. Known today under the general name of quantum mechanics, these two theories gave the long-awaited general framework describing quantum phenomena. Many physicists preferred wave mechanics, since its mathematical apparatus was more familiar to them, and its concepts seem more 'natural'; same operation on matrices - more cumbersome.
Shortly after Heisenberg and W. developed quantum mechanics, P.A. M. Dirac proposed a more general theory, in which elements of Einstein's special theory of relativity combined with the wave equation. Dirac equation is applicable to particles moving with arbitrary velocities. Spin and magnetic properties of electrons followed from the Dirac theory without making any additional assumptions. Moreover, Dirac's theory predicted the existence of antiparticles, such as the positron and antiproton - twin particles with opposite sign of electric charges.
In 1933. SH. and Dirac was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory '. In the same year, Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1932. At the presentation ceremony, Hans Pleyel, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences paid tribute to W. for 'a new system of mechanics, which is valid for the motion inside atoms and molecules'. According to Pleyel, wave mechanics gives not only 'a number of problems in atomic physics, but also simple and convenient method for studying the properties of atoms and molecules and has become a powerful stimulus to the development of physics'.
. The physical meaning of wave Schrodinger equation is not immediately obvious
. First of all, the wave function takes complex values, containing the square root of -1. SH. originally described as an undulating wave function of the distribution of negative electric charge of an electron. Avoid the complex decisions, he entered the square function (multiplied by itself). Later Bourn identified squared absolute value of the wave function at a given point as a value proportional to the probability of finding the particle at a given point with the experimental observation. SH. did not like the interpretation of Born, as it excluded certain allegations about the position and velocity of the particle.
Along with Einstein and de Broglie W. was among the opponents of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics (so called in recognition of the Niels Bohr, . a lot of made for the emergence of quantum mechanics, Bohr lived and worked in Copenhagen), . because it repelled the absence of the determinism,
. In the Copenhagen interpretation the Heisenberg uncertainty relation posited that the position and velocity of a particle can not be precisely known at the same time. More precisely measured position of the particle, the uncertain rate, and vice versa. Subatomic events can be predicted only as the probability of various outcomes of the experimental measurements. SH. denied the Copenhagen view of the wave and particle models as 'extra', coexisting with the picture of reality and continued to search for describing the behavior of matter in terms of mere wave. However, in this way, he failed, and the Copenhagen interpretation has become dominant.
In 1927, Mr.. SH. at the invitation of the Planck became his successor at the Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Berlin. He left the department in 1933 after the Nazis came to power, in protest against the persecution of dissidents and, in particular, against the attack on the street in one of his assistants, a Jew by nationality. From Germany III, went as a visiting professor at Oxford, where shortly after his arrival came the news of the award of the Nobel Prize.
In 1936, despite misgivings about its future, W. accepted the offer and became a professor at the University of Graz in Austria, but in 1938, after the annexation of Austria by Germany, was forced to leave and this position, having fled to Italy. Accepting the invitation, . He then moved to Ireland, . where he became Professor of Theoretical Physics, Dublin Institute of Fundamental Research, and remained in that position for seventeen years, . doing research on wave mechanics, . Statistics, . statistical thermodynamics, . field theory and especially on the general theory of relativity.,
. After the war, the Austrian government tried to persuade W
. return to Austria, but he refused, until the country was occupied by Soviet troops. In 1956, Mr.. He received the Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Vienna. This was the last post which he held in his life.
In 1920, Mr.. SH. married Annemarie Bertel; children of the spouses was. All his life he was a passionate lover of nature and tourist. Among his colleagues W. was known as a vicious man, an eccentric, who had a few like-minded, Dirac describes the arrival of W. the prestigious Solvay Congress in Brussels: 'All his belongings fit into a backpack. He looked like a tramp, and it took quite a long time to convince the clerk, before he took W. hotel room '.
W. deeply interested not only scientific but also philosophical aspects of physics, written in Dublin a few philosophical studies. Reflecting on the problems of the application of physics to biology, . He advanced the idea of a molecular approach to the study of genes, . stating it in his book 'What is zhiznN Physical aspects of a living cell' ( 'What is LifeN The Physical Aspects of a Living Cell', . 1944), . influence some biologists, . including Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins,
. SH. also published a book of poetry. He retired in 1958, when he was seventy-one years, and died three years later in Vienna.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, W. has been awarded many prizes ipochestey, including a gold medal Matteuchchi the Italian National Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck medal Germanskogo Physical Society, and was awarded the Order of the Government of the Federal Republic of Merit. III. was an honorary doctorate by the University of Ghent, Dublin and Edinburgh, was a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Royal Society of London, the Berlin Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences of the Dublin and Madrid Academy of Sciences.